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← Return to Climbing Stairs After TKR
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I decided to have a TKR for two reasons. Long walks were painful and going downstairs was painful. I am 12 weeks out. Going downstairs is stil painful but now going upstairs is more painful than going down, and it didn’t hurt at all pre TKR. As for longer walks, they cause days of no sleep pain. I am hoping this will resolve. On the bright side trotting on my horse doesn’t seem to bother my knee but then it didn’t before the TKR. I haven’t tried cantering yet and I was starting to get a little knee pain in one direction at the Canter.
I am hoping this will resolve but actually going upstairs seems to be getting worse not better, I had excellent physical therapy and can bend my knee almost entirely, though kneeling ion the knee is nor possible because the knee itself hurts too much. I was hoping to do this in a month to garden.... seems unlikely.
Replies to "I decided to have a TKR for two reasons. Long walks were painful and going downstairs..."
@jeannieww I agree with @javajude. If you stick with it, it will get better. I really had a lot of trouble on long walks but that had actually gotten somewhat better before my TKR because I exercised it a lot. Now I can walk for a very long time. We were on vacation in October and I walked something like so much every day but one. It felt great to be able to do that.
As I said before, stairs took longer but now they are easy. I do not have quite the amount of flex I would like but I am ambivalent about having lysis to fix that. I think I can probably live with what I have. It's probably around 115 now. I am going to a different ortho tomorrow, for cortisone in my hips (bursitis), so I will ask her if she will measure it for me while I am there.
JK
I can totally agree with you regarding the major problem with kneeling. I just bought my 3rd different set of knee pads, trying to find one that’s both soft and comfortable and not too cumbersome to wear and put on. As long as I keep my body weight on the tibia and don’t lean forward on the knee, I can manage some short stretches of kneeling without pads when pulling weeds. For cleaning bathroom floors by hand, I found that simply triple-folding the bathroom rugs (that you need to move out of the way anyway), and using those as soft support, works perfectly. Stairs will never be my favorite, but at about 6 months they do not really give me problems most days. Weather changes, or overdoing things, sometimes still make it painful. But considering that before the TKR it was totally impossible for me to walk down stairs normally, or walk down any but the most gentle downslope, I’ll take what I have now!
Yeah kneeling after a TKR is very hard. I wouldn't suggest gardening on your knees even with a cushion.
TKRs can take a year to resolve. It can be misleading because the incision heals in 6 weeks. But healing inside the knee can take a year.
Please try to be patient, and all the best to you.
Joe
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Every month gets better. I was told by my PT to watch my form and keep walking up and downstairs to strengthen up muscles around knee. So don't avoid stair climbs and descents. It will get easier!